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Digital illiteracy is cause of increased teacher workload

Digital illiteracy amongst teachers and a lack of innovation in educational technology is increasing workload, suggests a new report released today.

Respondents to the coalition government’s workload challenge last year said repeatedly that inputting data contributed to increasing working hours.

The publication from Advanced Learning, a company providing cloud-based management information systems (MIS), was written by John Roberts, the chief executive of teachers’ union alternative Edapt.

Mr Roberts told Schools Week: “User experience puts people off embedding technology in classrooms. There doesn’t seem to have been enough consultation with end users, the teachers, about how tech can ease pain points they have with data.

“Training staff in using new technology needn’t be costly; just one staff member can be trained and be a mentor for colleagues.”

The report criticises Capita SIMS, the MIS used by more than 80 per cent of schools. “With a single provider dominating this market, disruptive education technology innovation has been stifled.”

Mr Roberts said he did not envisage every classroom “needing an iPad” but the work of taking registers and marking could be reduced via technology. However, more work needed to be done to upgrade many schools’ technology, and access to fast broadband.